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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22686364">let me help</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/lightninginabottle0613/pseuds/lightninginabottle0613'>lightninginabottle0613</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>'forgetting it ever happened', Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Roommates, Smut, Trying To Conceive, With a twist?, also known as: 'famous last words'</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 02:55:53</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>18,154</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22686364</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/lightninginabottle0613/pseuds/lightninginabottle0613</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"Once," she relented. "<em>One</em> time. And if it doesn’t take, I go back to plan A, and we forget this ever happened.”</p><p>-</p><p>(Arya wants to have a baby. Gendry is nothing if not a helpful best friend.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Arya Stark/Gendry Waters</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>391</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>693</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. yours</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>a proposition</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She could do this by herself - really, she could. It was just turning out to be a bit more complicated than she’d expected.</p><p>Not for any sort of medical reason, mind you. When it came to her health, Arya was practically indestructible - had been, for her entire life. She ate well and worked out, never smoked, always made time for an annual physical. In fact, she’d made a conscious point to seek the endorsements of multiple medical professionals before she decided to make this leap. Unsurprisingly, her body was ready.</p><p>Oven preheated, so to speak.</p><p>As far as coming to terms with the fact that she’d be going through the process alone - ’unconventionally,’ she often thought with a begrudging roll of her eyes - <em>that</em> decision had been rather unflinching, as well. The fact was simple - Arya wanted to be a mother. She wanted to carry and raise and love a child that was hers, and that was all there was to it.</p><p>And she would entertain exactly zero arguments for why she should let her dream pass her lazily by, all while she waited for a <em>partner</em> to do it with her. She’d been doing that for long enough, as far as she was concerned.</p><p>The technical process itself was a giant headache, if she was honest - finding a fertility specialist, picking a donor, taking the necessary medications. The procedures sounded sort of painful, and the whole thing would require more patience than she probably had, and there was always the possibility that it wouldn’t work - that she’d be back at square one, having to try again.</p><p>Not a <em>complication</em>, per se. Just a minor anxiety - one that seemed par for the course, to be fair.</p><p>It was also criminally expensive, but that was the least of her concerns.</p><p>Arya was always the first person to acknowledge her privilege, and this whole ordeal was proving to be no different. For someone less fortunate, it would really be breaking the bank - but she was lucky enough to have a substantial savings, and premium health insurance, and even more money to spare when everything was ultimately said and done. If anything, the one factor that made the process <em>more</em> complicated for most people made it much less so for her.</p><p>An afterthought on her worst day, but still one she’d never take for granted.</p><p>Telling everyone else, though - <em>that</em> was where things got sticky.</p><p>Her friends would surely fall all over the spectrum of reaction. Arya’s favor for people with big personalities was something she quite liked most of the time, but here - here, she could picture it becoming incredibly exhausting, incredibly fast.</p><p>Lommy would be on her doorstep with a newborn, gender-neutral wardrobe in a minute flat. Alys would want to sit and unpack it all - make sure that Arya had thought of every single possible outcome, that she was absolutely positive she wanted to do it this way. Meera would <em>fully</em> lose her shit. All would undoubtedly support her and get behind her and beg to be a godparent, but just the thought of having to <em>explain</em> herself to all of them, individually, was overwhelming.</p><p>Again, not exactly complicated. Just…a lot.</p><p>Her colleagues would be easy, actually. The elderly receptionist at Arya’s clinic adored her, and she’d most likely smile warmly in her attempt to approve of the unique circumstance. Sandor would grunt some unintelligible manner of congratulations, in perhaps the most endearing display of emotion she’d probably get from anyone.</p><p>Her family - well. Her family, she could <em>pretty</em> much handle.</p><p>Like every other major development in her life over the last twenty-nine years, she imagined she’d slip this one into casual conversation - preferably when everyone had had more than two drinks each. She was prepared for the onslaught of judgment from her mother and Sansa, and she already planned to be seated directly between her father and Jon - so she could pat them both swiftly on the back when they inevitably choked on their food.</p><p>Everyone else - distant family, clients, random strangers - she’d worry about as the situations arose. Arya had learned a thing or two in her adulthood on how to avoid caring about what people thought of her and her decisions, so it was safe to say that she had them under control, too.</p><p>Upon reflection then, ‘complicated’ really only factored in for one distinct reason - for one distinct person, whose eventual opinion she couldn’t even <em>begin</em> to forecast, no matter how hard she tried.</p><p>And as she fiddled with the doorknob to their shared apartment - two six-packs hanging precariously from one hand, a pile of mail sandwiched under her chin - she prepared to face him.</p>
<hr/><p>“Hey, pause it real quick? I need to take a piss.”</p><p>Arya snorted, reaching for the remote. “Classy.”</p><p>She took advantage of the respite and focused on her breathing, as Gendry retreated down the hallway. The clock on the wall read 8:54, and she’d given herself a deadline of 9:00.</p><p>Six minutes to figure out how in the world to tell her best friend she was going to have a baby.</p><p>He wouldn’t be <em>all </em>that surprised, she didn’t think. For all intents and purposes, Gendry was her person. She told him everything, and her dreams of motherhood were no exception. He always softly smiled when she talked about it - fed her polite platitudes about how she’d be a natural and how it would surely happen for her someday. There was always something else there, though - something in his eyes that unnerved her, in a way she could never quite place.</p><p>The same thing that was, admittedly, terrifying her at that very moment. She’d let Alys deal with unpacking that, too.</p><p>She just needed to come right out and say it, she decided. Like ripping off a bandage. It wasn’t like he’d try to talk her out of it or make her feel naive - the only true hurdle would be getting past the initial shock. But the words themselves were completely failing her.</p><p><em>I’m having a baby.</em> Straight to the point, but not entirely true just yet.</p><p><em>You’re going to be an uncle!</em> That one made her stomach turn, but she was probably just drinking too fast.</p><p>The sound of hands being washed snapped her out of her deliberation, and <em>shit</em>, she was genuinely sweating over this. She took another long swig from her beer - a last ditch effort for some liquid courage - and took another deep breath. Gendry reentered the living room, and she opened her mouth to speak - desperately hoping that whatever came out didn’t make him trip on his way back to the couch.</p><p>She should’ve guessed that it would be so much worse than she’d expected.</p><p>“Do you think these walls are soundproof?” she blurted out.</p><p>Gendry stopped directly in front of the coffee table. He tilted his head almost imperceptibly, pursing his lips in sarcastic consideration.</p><p>“Good question. Very regular.”</p><p>Arya gulped and shifted in her seat.</p><p>“Sorry. That was weird,” she said, her voice shaking slightly.</p><p>He eyed her curiously, as he rounded the table and sank back into the couch cushions.</p><p>“Are you okay?” he asked.</p><p>“What?” she answered a bit too loudly, her eyes snapping up to meet his. “Me? Yeah, yeah. I’m okay.”</p><p>Gendry looked unconvinced.</p><p>“Cool. Because you seem <em>so</em> okay.”</p><p>“I <em>am</em> okay,” she assured him with feigned confidence.</p><p>He snorted. “Okay.”</p><p>She succumbed to her utter failure, leaning forward to resume the movie and burrowing farther into the side of the sofa. They each took a long pull from their drinks, and Arya pretended - poorly - to appear as focused on what they were watching as Gendry seemed.</p><p>After a few minutes of discreet deep breaths, she broke the silence again with a clearing of her throat. She spoke without pausing the film.</p><p>“It should just be soundproof if there’s gonna be a baby here,” she said.</p><p>“Oh, you’re watching Lya?” Gendry asked, his attention still focused on the television.</p><p>Arya swallowed. “Living here, I mean.” That got his attention.</p><p>Gendry paused the movie again and turned to face her. “Whose baby is living here?”</p><p>“Um,” Arya started, her heart beating several miles a minute. “Mine.”</p><p>“<em>Yours</em>?” he asked, appropriately bewildered. “You have a baby?”</p><p>“Well. No. Not yet.”</p><p>“Not ye- Oh. You’re…<em>oh</em>,” Gendry managed, his eyes wide. “Wow. You’re…wow. Okay.” She’d sat back to let it sink in for him, taking another swig from her drink while he processed. He caught that, and raised his eyebrow.</p><p>“Taking it very seriously already, I see.”</p><p>Arya’s cheeks flushed mid-sip, and she hastily wiped her mouth to respond.</p><p>“No! No, gods, no,” she corrected him. “I’m not pregnant. It’s not…I’m just. <em>Planning</em> to be.”</p><p>The correction did little to assuage his confusion. Gendry’s forehead creased further. “Don’t you need-“</p><p>She huffed - her eyes closed and her voice a little too sharp. “It’s 2020, Gendry. I’m going to a sperm bank. Using a donor. That alright with you?”</p><p>“Hey, watch the tone,” he bit back. She opened her eyes to see his drink on the table, his hands clasped tightly together in his lap. “Of course, it’s alright. This is just…I wasn’t expecting this. Just trying to make sense of it.”</p><p>She closed her eyes again, trying to steady her heartbeat. “Sorry,” she muttered.</p><p>Very rarely had Arya and Gendry encountered any sort of awkward silence in their two decades of friendship - never once in the two years they’d been living together.</p><p>The giant window behind their couch was cracked open, the evening sounds of the world below wafting in with the summer breeze. The fridge was making a weird buzzing noise. The cushions rustled slightly, as Arya tried her best to get them to just swallow her up already.</p><p>Finally, Gendry cleared his throat.</p><p>“So,” he started slowly, “with…Arianne?”</p><p>It was Arya’s turn for bewilderment. “What?!” she exclaimed. <em>With-</em> “Gendry, no. Just because I’m…no. Not with Arianne. I haven’t seen her in months.”</p><p>“Your names were way too similar,” he said with a shake of his head - more to himself, than to her.</p><p>“I’m doing it by myself.”</p><p>Gendry’s eyes shot up to meet her newly determined stare, and his features instantly softened.</p><p>“Oh,” he said, almost whispered. He was shaking his head - like he was chastising himself for not catching on more quickly. “Of course. Right. You don’t need…of course.”</p><p>He paused for a beat before moving closer toward her, beckoning her to meet him in the middle with open arms.</p><p>“That’s amazing, Arya,” he said, pulling her into his embrace. “That’s amazing.”</p><p>She felt her chest tighten at his gesture. Gendry wasn’t a big hugger - always seemed to like his personal space, always seemed to take extra care to preserve it when she was around, for some reason. She allowed herself to loosen against his chest and sighed.</p><p>“Yeah?” she asked.</p><p>“Are you kidding?” he answered, leaning back slightly, but keeping her close. “You’re gonna crush it. You’re such…you’re…” he trailed off, eyes scanning her entire face, before finally locking onto hers. “That kid is gonna be so lucky.”</p><p>Arya could feel the familiar prickle of tears threatening to fall, and she had been very clear with herself in the mirror earlier that day that she would <em>not</em> cry that night, so she closed her eyes. Her stomach swooped when Gendry brought her back into another hug - briefer, more of a squeeze than anything, but one that indicated that he’d seen her trying to hold back.</p><p>He smiled at her when they broke apart, really smiled at her, and there it was - that unnamed thing behind his eyes. He turned to look out the open window before Arya had a chance to study it more.</p><p>“And being raised with this sick view. What a deal.”</p><p>It was the first acknowledgement, from him, that the baby would, in fact, be living there with her. Living there with -</p><p>“You’re gonna stay?” He turned back to face her, quirked his brow. “I mean, you’re alright? With it? I shouldn’t have assumed-“</p><p>“I’m glad you assumed,” Gendry cut her off. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”</p><p>She smiled back - really smiled back - and, yeah. It was a lucky kid.</p><p>“Okay,” she said, relieved.</p><p>Gendry reached back toward his drink, clinking it with the bottle still cradled in her hands. She laughed lightly and shook her head in disbelief, moving to finally resume the movie.</p><p>“Like I’d go anywhere,” he murmured. “Someone’s gotta teach her how to ride a motorcycle.”</p><p>Arya never had a focused picture in her head when she thought of her future child. Sometimes she had a daughter - features as sharp as her tongue, far too smart for her own good. Chestnut hair, or maybe red. And sometimes she had a son - gentle and sweet, a smile bright enough to rival the stars.</p><p>She did her best, then, to ignore the sudden flash of a raven-haired little girl, being steadied on a bike by Gendry’s stupidly large hands - because, of course, he would never, ever let anything hurt her. She herself watched fondly from the front doorframe of a two-story house, and they both looked back in tandem to wave, a mirror image of each other, and -</p><p>Huh. That was certainly specific.</p><p>She barked out a hopefully nonchalant laugh, took another sip.</p><p>“Whatever you say, hotshot.”</p>
<hr/><p>Three beers later, and the entire situation was a lot funnier than it’d been a few hours before, as far as Arya and Gendry were concerned.</p><p>“Hard pass on this one,” Gendry said with a cackle, leaning toward the laptop screen to jab a finger at the profile for emphasis. His arm brushed hers when he did so - they were crowded together, side by side. Purely for convenience’s sake.</p><p>“What’s wrong with him?” Arya asked.</p><p>“His philosophy is that ‘<em>life is a gift that should not be wasted</em>-“</p><p>“You’re mean,” she laughed. “That’s sweet.”</p><p>“-<em>and no problem is too big to solve with a Meryn Trant film.</em>’”</p><p>“Oh, gross,” she said, scrunching her nose. She clicked to the next page of search results. “What about this one?”</p><p>Gendry skimmed the donor’s bio and scoffed. “He’s a lawyer.”</p><p>“So?”</p><p>“Arya,” he said with a pointed eye roll - like he was offended he’d even need to explain it to her. “Come on.”</p><p>“Lawyer not good enough for me, or what?” she challenged sarcastically.</p><p>Gendry grumbled something into his next sip - something that might have been about nobody being good enough for her, Arya couldn’t tell - and she flopped back onto the couch behind her.</p><p>“Ugh, this is impossible,” she moaned. “Why is this impossible?”</p><p>“Better question is why does it cost more than my entire fucking life?” he asked, still bent forward, scrolling the website.</p><p>“I’ve got it covered.”</p><p>He laughed, eyes still on the screen. “Always knew you were just another rich girl.”</p><p>“You know, like, three rich girls,” she said, nudging his back with her fuzzy-socked foot.</p><p>Arya heard the smile in his voice when he spoke next. “Still shouldn’t cost this much, though.”</p><p>“I know, right?” she agreed. “<em>Crazy</em>.” He turned around then. “S’not fair. So many people can’t have kids the <em>natural</em> way,” she continued, saying the word with mock pretentiousness. “And there’s same-sex couples. And <em>some</em> people don’t have…”</p><p>She trailed off, stopped herself when she noticed just how intently Gendry was watching her. He looked like he saw something he hadn’t before - or something he <em>had</em>, but had never examined closely enough.</p><p>Arya looked into her lap. “S’just dumb. That some people are just…out here. Makin’ babies. For free.”</p><p>“Sometimes by accident,” he added with a smirk and a cock of his head.</p><p>She laughed and sighed. “I just want one so bad. Some people shouldn’t even be bloody <em>allowed</em> to,” she said.</p><p>“My father,” Gendry offered.</p><p>“Just the accidents. You lot can stay.”</p><p>“Meryn Trant’s parents.”</p><p>Arya threw her arms up in agreement. “Meryn <em>fucking</em> Trant’s parents!”</p><p>Gendry chuckled and turned back to face the computer, running a hand through his already disheveled hair.</p><p>“Well…yeah. This is nuts.” Silence permeated the space for a beat, and Arya took to fiddling with the label on her bottle. She looked up when she heard the sound of his drink being placed on the table, felt him shift so he could face her properly.</p><p>“Let me help.”</p><p>“Gendry,” she said, shaking her head, “that’s…no. I couldn’t ask you to do that. You have loans and shit, and I have way more than enough, don’t-“</p><p>“No, not the money,” he interrupted. “Let me help you make a baby.”</p><p>Her eyes nearly exploded open. She hadn’t been sipping, but she still choked when she opened her mouth to speak.</p><p>“Pardon?”</p><p>Casually - <em>way</em> too casually - he gestured toward the laptop screen. “That’s what you need to buy? I have a ton of that.”</p><p>“Gendry. What the fuck.”</p><p>Just as suddenly as he’d suggested it, he looked nervous - embarrassed, almost. Tentative.</p><p>“I mean,” he started to backpedal, “you don’t have to, if you…I know you have the money, but it…just. You’d save a lot of extra…you know what? Never mind. Forget it.”</p><p>He may as well have been monologuing to himself. Arya was too busy checking to make sure her heart wasn’t beating outside of her body.</p><p>“You would…why would you…” she stammered. “You don’t want kids.”</p><p>“What? When did I say that?” Gendry asked, taken aback. “Sure, I do. Or…I don’t <em>not</em>, I guess.” He sighed. “Plus, we wouldn’t…It could still be just yours. If that’s really what you want.”</p><p>So, they weren’t dropping this, then. Excellent.</p><p>“You could just…get what you need. For free,” he finished.</p><p>He was serious. He was really, actually serious. Arya finally, for the first time, allowed herself to think about it, and -</p><p>“That’s…I mean. Wouldn’t that be weird?”</p><p>Gendry smiled faintly. “Only if we let it be weird.”</p><p>“You’d really do this.”</p><p>“I think we’d make a nice-looking kid,” he said, smiling a bit more.</p><p>“Nice-looking,” she repeated lowly, in disbelief. She was both cursing their fourth beers and curbing the urge to slam both of them back, one after the other.</p><p>A baby - one that was half her, half Gendry. All of the best parts of them, in one tiny thing. That was sort of what their whole friendship was, she guessed - their greatest attributes, complementing each other at every turn, something that she knew they both valued and protected more than anything.</p><p>And he was so good - way too good to be offering something so selfless. Her best friend in the whole world, and someone who was willing to let his entire life change for this no matter what, and maybe that was what this was all about in the end - being there.</p><p>She’d fixed her gaze on her hands, as she ruminated on his offer, and she glanced up to find him still watching her - she could only imagine how many emotions he’d seen flit across her features in the past thirty seconds. She sucked in a breath, released it with her next word.</p><p>“Okay.”</p><p>Gendry blinked - a little like he hadn’t been expecting her to agree, a little like he was possibly happy that she had. “Really?”</p><p>“Yeah,” Arya said, vaguely aware that she was nodding, as she sat up straighter. “It’s actually…no, yeah. That works.”</p><p>More silence persisted, but a different kind - not quite uncomfortable, but one that held a newfound…something. They were no longer sitting close enough to touch, but the space between them had never been so charged. Like this new thing in their lives was already materializing right there, in the middle of their drafty living room.</p><p>Arya’s cheeks flushed when she realized she had no idea where to go from there.</p><p>“So, I guess we’d…you’d…” she tried, looking needlessly behind her, toward their kitchen. She laughed in resignation. “I’m a vegetarian. I don’t have a turkey baster.”</p><p>She looked back at him, expecting him to quip about the superiority of carnivores, or about how ‘<em>did she</em> <em>forget she’s a bloody vet’</em> and could just steal a syringe from the clinic, but what she saw instead made her mind go blank - a devilish, wordless eyebrow raise.</p><p>Oh.</p><p>“Right. So, you <em>are</em> just fucking with me.”</p><p>He smirked. “I am not fucking with you.”</p><p>“But you wanna be,” she blurted out, before she could stop herself. He only laughed - the bastard. “How drunk are you?”</p><p>Gendry shrugged. “Drunk enough to suggest it. Sober enough to know what I’m suggesting, though.”</p><p>“Oh, my gods,” she deadpanned.</p><p>His eyebrow rose higher, the smirk intensifying. “Are you <em>that</em> repulsed by the mere <em>thought</em>-“</p><p>“No,” she answered quickly - too quickly, she realized. <em>Course-correct</em>. “No, it’s not…We’re best friends.”</p><p>“Exactly,” he answered just as quickly - like their being best friends was his sole reason for even proposing it. Like he was having exactly zero problem - and zero heart palpitations - picturing it.</p>
<hr/><p>Arya and Gendry had kissed three times in the past twenty years.</p><p>The first time had been <em>her</em> first time, and he hadn’t actually known that until much later. They’d been playing Truth or Dare with their collective siblings, and someone had told Gendry to streak around the block or kiss someone in the circle, so he’d pecked her chastely on the lips - immediately apologizing for catching her off-guard, spending the rest of the night avoiding her.</p><p>The second time was five years later and a complete role reversal - Arya grabbing Gendry by his lapels and dragging his lips onto hers, successfully keeping his smarmy ex-girlfriend from crowding their table at the pub. Similar apologies had followed, and she’d managed to last another half hour before feigning exhaustion and heading home early.</p><p>Truthfully, she wasn’t entirely certain that either of them had a clear memory of the third time - only a short year ago. A bit too much to drink at his sister’s wedding had found them huddled together in a shadowed corner, trading pointless stories, having to lean in extra close to hear each other over the loud music. An accidental brush of her lips against the shell of his ear had resulted in a heated mess of limbs and tongues and breathless abandon. Bella had found them - or maybe it was Sansa - and pulled them both back out to the dance floor, just as far gone as they were. They never spoke about it.</p><p>She didn’t have <em>un</em>pleasant memories of any of the instances - mostly just small reminders, from time to time, that there <em>were</em> instances to begin with. When he’d squeeze by her in the kitchen or tuck her hair out of her face when he thought she was asleep on the couch. When either of them would talk about times they’d kissed other people, or when one would forget that the other was home and leave the bathroom wearing a little less clothing than appropriate.</p><p>When he offered to <em>fuck her and get her pregnant</em>.</p><p>Hand to the gods, Arya had never considered having sex with Gendry before, but now - now she was reevaluating everything.</p><p>Had she really not? Or had she just successfully repressed the thought every time it crossed her mind - because he was ‘older than she was,’ or ‘not interested in her like that,’ or <em>Gendry</em>? And was all of that repression suddenly for naught, with this batshit proposition now dangling over her head, forcing her to think of absolutely nothing else?</p><p>Nice-looking - any baby they made would be nice-looking. And who was Arya to deprive herself of anything else that might be nice-looking along the way?</p>
<hr/><p>A slightly deranged laugh bubbled up from within her chest.</p><p>“What’s so funny?” Gendry asked.</p><p>“I’m, like, ninety-nine percent sure that my parents were drunk on the night I was conceived.”</p><p>He started to smirk, nice and slow. She knew he could tell that she was taking him seriously when he said nothing in response - simply gestured up and down his body in a silent ‘ditto.’</p><p>Maybe it wouldn’t even work. Maybe their…business wouldn’t be compatible, and she was pretty positive that wasn’t even a thing, but maybe - maybe it wouldn’t be meant to be. She supposed there was only one surefire way to find out.</p><p>“Alright.”</p><p>His jaw dropped. “Alright?”</p><p>“Once,” she relented, her eyes narrowed. “<em>One</em> time. And if it doesn’t take, I go back to plan A, and we forget this ever happened.”</p><p>Gendry grinned triumphantly and breathed in deep. He shuffled ever so slightly toward where she sat - her back against the arm of the sofa - and opened his mouth to retort. Arya cut him off at the pass, lifting a finger in warning.</p><p>“And if you even think about telling me the seed is strong, I will make it weak.”</p><p>“Noted,” he replied, and he was already so close - close enough to place a slightly shaky hand on her bent knee. Close and warm - always impossibly warm.</p><p>“I’m, um,” Arya started, watching as his thumb began rubbing easy strokes against the material of her yoga pants. “I’m ovulating. Right…right now.”</p><p>She could have almost winced at possibly the most bizarre foreplay she’d ever engaged in, if not for the way Gendry simply hummed - his strokes becoming more prominent, his eyes roaming over the lower half of her face.</p><p>Arya closed her eyes, which did nothing to dull the sensory overload.</p><p>“How do we even start?” she asked quietly.</p><p>She opened her eyes when she felt his hand leave her knee and land on the side of her neck. He was smiling at her again, and she was reminded instantly - reminded of why she definitely wanted to do this.</p><p>“I think we’ve got this part down already,” he said, drawing her closer. “C’mere.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>arya and gendry: *have a conversation about how some dumbasses shouldn't be allowed to procreate*<br/>arya and gendry: *take 15 secs to decide they're gonna fuck to get arya pregnant and 'forget it ever happened' if it doesn't work<br/>me: *bangs gavel* they're the dumbasses, your honor </p><p>(also meryn trant as, like, the woody allen of modern westeros ... idk, work with me here)</p><p>tumblr: <a href="lightninginabottle0613.tumblr.com">lightninginabottle0613</a> 😇</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. mine</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>a slippery slope</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>If a person could get knocked up from making out alone, Arya would be approximately twenty minutes pregnant.</p>
<p>She quickly learned that she, in fact, had a <em>crystal-</em>clear recollection of their third kiss - considering how instinctively her hands tangled in Gendry’s hair, how naturally she slotted against him. If his hold on her hips as she straddled him was any indication - he remembered it, too.</p>
<p>His mouth had wandered to her jawline when she felt his hands finally creep under her shirt - instantly lighting a fire across her lower back.</p>
<p>“Is this…” he started, pulling away - an action that Arya found she did not care for. “Is this okay?”</p>
<p>He looked so sweet. He always <em>hated</em> when anyone called him sweet, and he honestly wasn’t, most of the time, but - she couldn’t think of a better word for him then, if she tried.</p>
<p>She met his question with an action of her own - tossing her shirt off completely, flinging it across the living room, leaving her top half completely bare.</p>
<p>“Are you gonna ask me that this whole time?” she asked, stifling a smirk at the way he visibly gulped. “Because this is, like…the tamest thing we’re gonna have to do.”</p>
<p>His eyes darted up to meet hers, from where they’d been glued to her chest. He still looked sweet, but regret - no, yeah, that was definitely regret - colored his stare, and okay. So, he’d changed his mind. They could come back from this. He’d seen her tits, but she’d also felt his dick twitching against her crotch, so they could feasibly call it even and just put on another movie. </p>
<p>“We don’t,” he said, his shoulders slumping a bit. “Have to, I mean. I don’t want you to think-“</p>
<p>Arya’s face softened. Realizing her poor choice of words, she swiftly brought a hand up to cover his heart. She pressed there - just a little - and took an exaggerated breath, inviting him to do the same. When she felt him relax enough under her touch, she slid her palm slowly down the planes of his stomach.</p>
<p>“This okay?” she whispered when she reached the hem. Just like that they were gone - his nerves <em>and</em> his shirt.</p>
<p>Arya dove back down to capture his mouth, intent to continue with much of the same - except not the same at all, because now her nipples were catching on his chest hair with each roll of her hips against him, and he was gripping her even tighter than before, and she could almost <em>definitely</em> come from this, if he would just -</p>
<p>This wasn’t about that, though.</p>
<p>Gendry tore his mouth from hers to place rapid, hungry kisses down the column of her neck, stopping to rest his forehead against the valley between her breasts. He squeezed her waist once, before sliding his hands up to cover them - massaging lightly, breathing her in. Arya kept carding her fingers through his hair - someone would really have to make it worth her while for her to ever stop doing that - and tugged abruptly when he brushed his thumbs in tandem over the hardened points.</p>
<p>“Fuck,” he mumbled, just as she hissed through her teeth, and she suddenly came up with a much better use for her hands. She was pulling back the waistband of his sweatpants before she could think twice.</p>
<p>Gendry groaned, threw his head back onto the couch cushion, before sitting up and shaking it - like he was trying to snap out of something.</p>
<p>“No,” he said definitively, wrapping his arms around her waist and rising from the couch. “Not here.”</p>
<p>He was walking with so much purpose, and she was overcome with so much of <em>him</em> - his smell, his labored breathing, how effortlessly he’d lifted both of them up with just his legs - that she only realized he’d brought them to <em>his</em> room when he dropped her on the bed.</p>
<p>She wondered for a split second if he’d thought about this before, but she shoved the notion down just as fast. His room was closer to the living room than hers - nothing deeper about it.</p>
<p>An unforeseen wave of self-consciousness washed over her, as he started taking off the rest of his clothes, his eyes never leaving her half-naked form.</p>
<p>“I’m gonna…” she started, reaching behind her in the dark room for the corner of his comforter. She slipped underneath, nestling herself between his sheets. “I’m cold.”</p>
<p>It was a shit lie, really - she was never cold, and it was the middle of summer, and Gendry’s room was always the warmest in the entire apartment. But she hadn’t bargained for this when she got home that night, and even though something - the intensity of his stare, namely - told her that he would have her in any imaginable state, she wanted to be in the right mindset for it.</p>
<p>She’d be damned if she let her insecurities ruin this for her.</p>
<p>Thankfully, he didn’t question it.</p>
<p>“Whatever you want,” he assured her quietly, standing before her now with nothing to hide.</p>
<p>She could make out only his silhouette in the darkness, but even the outline of him was enough to make her forget how to breathe. A war raged in her head - between being grateful he couldn’t see her appraising him, and wanting him to see her desire, plain as day. She squirmed out of her own bottoms, discarding them to the floor and sitting up slightly - the top of the blanket pooling around her waist.</p>
<p>Gendry remained rooted in place. Arya’s thighs involuntarily clenched together under the bedding.</p>
<p>“Well?” she asked. “You just gonna stand there, or what?” She needed him closer - for the sake of her health. It was a…curious feeling.</p>
<p>She heard him exhale, as he started toward her - slowly, carefully.</p>
<p>“This is just…” he said, getting close enough to pull back the blanket and slip in next to her. She instinctively turned to lay on her side, only a sliver of space between their chests. “We’re just…”</p>
<p>“I know,” Arya whispered, lifting a hand to cup his cheek, closing the distance to peck his lips sweetly. “I know.”</p>
<p>He kissed her then with a new level of desire, one that she fervently matched. Everything above the covers was frantic - their tongues shamelessly exploring each other’s mouths, the punctuated noises of delight. Everything below the covers, though - cautious and slow, like making any real contact would make the entire moment end.</p>
<p>She felt him brush against her pelvis - already leaking - at the same time his fingers grazed her swollen folds. She surprised both of them with an anxious giggle.</p>
<p>“Something funny to you, Stark?” he asked, laughing a bit himself. Somehow, his mirth put her at ease - enough to reach between them and take him in hand.</p>
<p>“Just having a good time,” she said in another shocking picture of honesty.</p>
<p>He leaned his head forward onto her shoulder - leaving erratic kisses against her collarbone - and watched her give him a few experimental strokes. He thrusted into her hand - consciously or unconsciously, Arya neither knew nor cared - and hoisted her top leg over his own. His fingers returned to her center, teasing her entrance this time, and finally - the desperation below the comforter matched the desperation on top of it.</p>
<p>They were no better than a pair of horny teenagers. She was cupping his balls, and he had three fingers pumping in and out of her, and they were barely even <em>kissing</em> anymore - just rutting against each other, obscenely panting, occasionally moving to suck on any stretch of skin they could reach.</p>
<p>Fifteen minutes or fifteen hours later, Gendry had rolled on top of her. One slide of his cock against her, and they both remembered what they were there for.</p>
<p>One of his arms left its position - bracketing Arya’s face - to swat blindly toward his nightstand drawer. She pulled back from where she’d been licking his chest.</p>
<p>“What are you doing?” she asked - only slightly embarrassed by how winded she sounded.</p>
<p>“I’m…fuck,” he muttered - arm still outstretched, head bowed in an attempt to get himself in order. She almost laughed again - the idiot had been fumbling for a condom.</p>
<p>“Sorry. Instinct,” he said, shaking his head some more. She tilted her head in fond amusement. “Not that I do this a lot!” he corrected, stuttering. “It’s actually been…I mean, <em>you</em> know it’s been-“</p>
<p>“Do I?”</p>
<p>“I’m sorry,” he said again, sitting back on his calves. “You’re weirded out. We can stop. It’s-”</p>
<p>“<em>Gendry</em>,” Arya cut him off, rubbing his thighs soothingly. “Stop apologizing.”</p>
<p>He made a sudden noise in the back of his throat, and it was like liquid bliss - straight to her core.</p>
<p>“I wish I could see you properly,” he said, moving his hands to cover hers. “You look so nice tonight. You always look so nice. You’re-”</p>
<p>“Hey,” she whispered, before he could carry on any further, because this wasn’t - this was supposed to be just once. One time. It wasn’t even over yet, and they were already teetering on the edge of something way beyond that.</p>
<p>She slid one of her hands out from under his, let it hover in front of her face, beckoned him with a hook of her index finger. Her eyes had adjusted to the lack of light well enough to catch his boyish smile, as he bent to move closer.</p>
<p>“Do you still wanna do this?” she said against his lips.</p>
<p>“<em>Gods</em>, yes,” he answered right away.</p>
<p>“Alright, then.” Arya snaked her arms around his neck, spreading her legs beneath him and tilting upward to brush once against him. She watched his face, transfixed - eyes trained on her lips, mouth slightly parted - as he lined himself up and slid slowly into her.</p>
<p>She was a damn fool for thinking she’d be able to forget about this. She blamed the fourth beer entirely - wrapping her legs around his waist to push him farther, anyway.</p>
<p>“Damn, that’s good,” he moaned faintly when he was fully seated, pressing his nose against her cheek. She must have been gripping his shoulders tighter than she thought, because he propped himself up on his forearms to search her eyes. “You okay?”</p>
<p>Her clench around him and the swivel of her hips belied her eye roll.</p>
<p>“Don’t get cocky, Waters. Move, please.”</p>
<p>The second Gendry retreated, pushing back in more torturously than Arya ever thought possible, she knew - she was so keyed up, she’d be lucky if she lasted another minute. She could have almost been sad, added another thing to her list of ‘Emotions to Unpack Later’ - but he read her mind and expressed the same sentiment, followed by a choked request that she touch herself.</p>
<p>She immediately obliged. His movements picked up in pace, his palms caressing her sides, the angle of his thrusts changing suddenly - hitting a spot inside of her that made her positively <em>sing</em>.</p>
<p>“You like that?” he asked between breaths, and she knew it wasn’t dirty talk, by any stretch - more of just a genuine curiosity - but she writhed beneath him, and keened all the same, and -  </p>
<p>“Mhm,” she whined, and the noise from him that followed - she didn’t think she’d ever been more soaked. Her fingers were slipping from her clit, but he was still pounding into that spot, and she felt an inconceivable warmth beginning to pool in her stomach, felt her breathing become shallow.</p>
<p>This was Gendry. She was having sex with Gendry. She’d just spent all day worrying over whether he would want to adjust his whole life to accommodate his best friend’s baby in his apartment. Now, he seemed determined to put that baby there himself.</p>
<p>To do that, <em>and</em> to give her an orgasm that felt likely to melt her from the inside out - not entirely crucial for reproduction, but she would <em>not</em> be pointing that out any time soon.</p>
<p>She heard him start - “Arya, I’m…I’m gonna…” - but she was already there. Tightening around him, thrashing her head to the side, barely able to hear her frenzied begging that he <em>come, please come</em>, before he was falling over the edge. He burrowed into her neck, jerking his hips once, twice more for good measure, as he spilled.</p>
<p>He was making muted little noises of contentment when she came back down - hums, vibrations she could feel right below her ear, all the way to the tips of her fingers - and her hands gradually found their way back into his hair. They lay there for what felt like a lifetime - letting their breathing settle, his cock starting to slip from where it was still buried inside of her.</p>
<p>Gendry moved first, mumbling something about not wanting to crush her, and she almost got sad again.</p>
<p>She was already crushed.</p>
<p>He rolled off of her, onto his side, guiding her by the waist to face him. They were both back to where they started - and also very, decidedly, <em>not</em>. Countless thoughts swarmed through her head, countless things she couldn’t possibly muster the strength to say, but he spoke before she could try.</p>
<p>“Think it worked?” he asked.</p>
<p>Really, <em>she</em> was the idiot for instating the ‘one time’ stipulation. Because what if it <em>hadn’t </em>worked? If their baby was taking root right then, as they lay side by side, at least she’d have something real to remember this by - something beyond what was sure to be their changed friendship. But if it wasn’t - her ‘plan A’ seemed like a foreign concept.</p>
<p>She could have met his question with sarcasm, or with tears, or with a silent initiation of round two, but it all felt like too much for her scrambled brain.</p>
<p>She decided on the truth.</p>
<p>“I hope so.”</p><hr/>
<p>When Gendry came home one afternoon two weeks later to find Arya stationed on the couch - heating pad under her lower back, a bag of something salty by her side, everything she might need for the day within arms’ reach - he didn’t even have to ask.</p>
<p>(To their credit, they’d both carried on living rather normally after what happened. She’d slept in her own room that night, and if she didn’t know any better, she’d say he’d seemed a bit disappointed by that, but he’d knocked on her door the next morning - like he had every Saturday for the past two years - to see if she was ready for their run.</p>
<p>The reminders were there - in accidental grazes of hands, in their frequent wrestling matches for the remote - but they hadn’t hurt like she thought they would. If anything, she’d swear they’d become even closer.</p>
<p>Until the copper stain on her underwear that made her want to go back in time, so she could politely decline.)</p>
<p>He closed the door quietly, set his coffee on the entryway table. For a moment, they just stared at each other.</p>
<p>“I’m sorry,” she said softly.</p>
<p>Gendry’s brows shot up. “<em>You’re</em> sorry?” he asked, properly confused. “<em>I’m</em> sorry.”</p>
<p>“No, I’m…” she started, wincing as she sat up a bit straighter. “It’s stupid. I’ll be okay.”</p>
<p>“It’s not stupid,” he said, shaking his head and rounding the coffee table to perch himself on the couch next to her. “You really wanted this.”</p>
<p>Her stomach felt like it was in her throat - <em>she’d</em> wanted this. Not him. She had, and she still did, and he was already gearing up to move on. The hand he’d placed on her knee felt heavy. She kept her eyes trained on her lap.</p>
<p>“Are we okay?” she heard herself ask.</p>
<p>“We’re so okay,” he said immediately. His voice sounded higher than usual, but her ears were ringing, so she chalked it up to that. “One time, right?” he continued. “And if it doesn’t work, we forget it ever happened?”</p>
<p>She needed this interaction to be over. She needed to sink so low into the cushions that they needed a forklift to get her out. She needed him to move his hand.</p>
<p>She swallowed down the lump in her throat. “Right.”</p>
<p>Mercifully, he slid his palm over her knee and down into his own lap. She finally looked up to see him watching her.</p>
<p>“Can we still…” he began, and her stomach turned again. There was no way. He couldn’t be -</p>
<p>“Do you still want me to stay?” he asked instead.</p>
<p>Arya fought the urge to cry and took in his expression - that familiar <em>something</em> behind his eyes, paired with a newfound grief. As if grief were even possible over something that had never even existed in the first place.</p>
<p>“Yeah,” she managed. “But only if you want to.”</p>
<p>She wanted to kill him, but she also wanted to fold completely into him, as he pulled her into a hug and nodded. She succeeded in stifling her gasp when he pressed a tender kiss to the top of her head.</p>
<p>“I love you.”</p>
<p>They didn’t say it a lot, but they did say it sometimes - meant it every time, too. Usually it was when one of them got the brilliant idea to order pizza at one o’clock in the morning, or when Arya would find Gendry’s keys for the hundredth time. Very rarely did it come from a heartfelt display of affection - and never had it made her feel nauseous.</p>
<p>“Love you, too,” she said back, because she couldn’t not. And she meant it more than ever.</p><hr/>
<p>Arya settled on a donor a few weeks later. Taller than she was - not a particularly difficult achievement - dark blonde hair, average build. He was a financial planner with a high IQ, and he had a clean medical history, and it was all fine.</p>
<p>Just fine.</p><hr/>
<p>“Will you check that?” Arya yelled from the bathroom, probably a bit too loudly - her hearing was still shot from the club. She kicked her shoes off, digging through her side of the cabinet for a makeup wipe. “Meera said she’d text me when she got home safely.”</p>
<p>Gendry’s muffled agreement sounded from the living room, while she readied herself for bed.</p>
<p>She was glad she’d finally gotten out of the house - her friends had been bugging her for ages, and she hadn’t exactly told them why she’d been so reluctant toward company recently. But she felt almost back to normal that night - she’d just gotten a soda, but she’d danced a lot, and she’d managed to shake off at least some of the stress that had been looming over her head for the past month.</p>
<p>Now, though, her feet hurt. And the first thing she saw upon returning home was Gendry - reclined on the couch, one muscled arm thrown behind his head, looking like a human pillow. It did absolutely nothing for her singular desire to curl up somewhere comfortable.</p>
<p>“Gendry!” she called again, when she heard nothing else in response. “Is it her?”</p>
<p>Still nothing. She splashed some water on her face for one last rinse and grabbed for a towel, before turning toward the door to investigate for herself.</p>
<p>She collided with Gendry - his socks muting the sound of his footsteps, as he approached the bathroom with her phone in his hand.</p>
<p>“Sorry,” he said, taking a step back. He offered her the phone. “It’s just…Here.”</p>
<p>Arya furrowed her brow at his palpable discomfort but quickly flushed when she saw the alert that had startled him - a notification from her cycle tracker.</p>
<p>It was about that time again.</p>
<p>“Oh,” she said, quickly locking the phone and setting it down on the sink counter. “Thanks.”</p>
<p>She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, dimly registering what a mess it must be from all of the movement that night. Gendry crossed his arms and cleared his throat.</p>
<p>“Have you settled on a guy yet, then?”</p>
<p>She felt herself make a face of distaste. “Don’t call them guys. They’re just donors,” she laughed. “I, um…yeah. I think so.”</p>
<p>His eyes widened slightly, and he nodded. “Cool,” he breathed. “That’s great.”</p>
<p>“Yeah,” she said, and she expected him to look away, but he didn’t. He didn’t, and he looked sort of nervous, so she chanced a small smile - one that he returned with just as much timidity.</p>
<p>The air conditioner kicked on, and only then did she remember the dress she was wearing. Her hand crossed her body to scratch absently at her bare shoulder.</p>
<p>“I’ll let you sleep,” Gendry said, finally breaking the tension. “I’m sure you’re tired.”</p>
<p>He spoke directly to the spot where she itched her skin. When she gave him no response, his eyes darted up to meet hers.</p>
<p>“‘Night, Arya.”</p>
<p>Maybe it was something in the air that did it - or something in the water she’d used to wash off with, or something in the way the muscles in his back rippled under his t-shirt, as he turned away from her. Whatever the case, her mouth was already miles ahead of her brain before she could process a thing.</p>
<p>“Hey, hold on.”</p>
<p>(Her brain caught up pretty quickly, though, when he nearly tripped from spinning around so fast.)</p>
<p>“Never mind,” she muttered.</p>
<p>“No, what is it?”</p>
<p>Whether ‘one more time’ would help them or hurt them was sort of irrelevant, given the way he was walking toward her - like he knew exactly what she wanted to ask.</p>
<p>“I was gonna…” she started, heat blooming up her neck. “Would you maybe-“</p>
<p>“Yes,” he said definitively, stopping directly in front of her, close enough to touch.</p>
<p>Alright. So, he maybe knew.</p>
<p>“What was I gonna say?” she laughed anxiously. He was staring at her mouth. It was potentially, slightly possible that she had him.</p>
<p>“Hm?” he questioned absentmindedly. What were they <em>doing</em>?</p>
<p>Arya bit the inside of her cheek - bit back a smile<em>.</em> “You didn’t let me finish.”</p>
<p>“Oh. Sorry. Please, continue.” He laid a hand on her shoulder, where hers had just been. His other slid down her side, stopping on the swell of her hip.</p>
<p>“Would you maybe wanna try again?” she asked. She barely recognized the huskiness in her voice, but she barely cared, because he was already bending down to capture her parted lips.</p>
<p>They kissed with a passion that hadn’t been there last time. It’d been playful, exploratory before - they kissed each other now like two people who knew exactly what drove the other person crazy. They were quick studies, the both of them - she liked when he sucked on her bottom lip, he liked when she ran her blunt nails down his back.</p>
<p>“Under one condition,” Gendry whispered, pulling her closer by her waist. She hated conditions - you’d take all of her, or you wouldn’t take her at all, that was her one guiding principle, but -</p>
<p>“What is it?” she exhaled.</p>
<p>(So, so much to unpack.)</p>
<p>He fingered the strap of her dress, nibbled below her earlobe.</p>
<p>“Lights on.”</p><hr/>
<p>Arya held her breath, as they both slid her unzipped dress down her body and onto the floor. They were in <em>her</em> room now - a compromise she was glad he’d gone along with - and she saw no fewer than ten different expressions cross his face, as he drank her in.</p>
<p>She felt exposed and panicked and slightly paralyzed by how lightly he was grazing her sides, and she was so close to asking if they could at least sub out her unforgiving overhead light for a lamp. Somehow, she knew he would agree, no matter what.</p>
<p>But, “Gods, you look perfect,” he whispered. So, she kissed him again.</p><hr/>
<p>She’d have to revise her rule on conditions, because his was an inspired one, really. She was able to get a good look at him this time, and he was able to <em>see</em> her getting a good look, and he still looked impossibly sweet - so sweet, and so beautiful.</p>
<p>He would end her if she ever told him that, she was positive.</p>
<p>Gendry was quieter than he’d been a month ago - kept opening his mouth like he had something to say, but releasing a series of repressed cries instead, and she would have paid millions to read his mind.</p>
<p>He made the most of the light, too - eyes fogging with each bounce of her chest, with each satisfied scrunch of her brow. She found herself wanting to make it good for him - wanting to give him everything he was already giving her.</p>
<p>He’d come sudden and fast before, but now she let her fingertips brush against his cock, as he emptied into her, and it seemed to drive him even harder to his peak. He was captivating - another secret word she promptly tucked away.</p><hr/>
<p>“Stay?” she asked, nearly half an hour later when she returned from the bathroom. Gendry was sitting up, legs dangling from the side of her mattress, having just pulled on his boxers. His automatic movement to leave her alone again - despite the fact that she’d been the one to ask it of him before - made her heart constrict.</p>
<p>He looked appropriately overcome.</p>
<p>“Absolutely.”</p><hr/>
<p>It was one of those sleeps that felt like a blink, and Arya could never quite decide if that was a good or bad thing. All she could comprehend was the morning light flooding her bedroom floor - warm and low and golden - and the fact that she was kissing Gendry. Lazy and slow.</p>
<p>She had no idea if he’d woken her, or if she’d woken him, but she knew she never wanted to stop. This wasn’t fair to him - even though it seemed like he had no complaints, he was helping, just helping, but it wasn’t fair. He wasn’t in this for the things she was feeling.</p>
<p>(<em>“You really wanted this.”</em>)</p>
<p>A pass of her bare foot up his calf, a deliberate brush of his palm along her upper thigh, and their movements grew heated. Gendry’s breath was shaky against her cheek when she hesitantly reached down to stroke him through his bottoms, and that settled it.</p>
<p>One more time. She’d talk to him, she would, just - one more time.</p>
<p>“I don’t think…” she said, her voice groggy from sleep, as he mouthed down her neck. “I don’t think it worked. I think one more time should-“</p>
<p>“You read my mind,” he said on an exhale, running a hand down her chest, around her waist, along her ass.</p>
<p>They removed what little they had on from each other’s bodies - a task that would have been much easier, had she cared to roll to her back for two seconds. But under her covers, flush against her best friend, she was warm - so much warmer, too, when nothing stood between them.</p>
<p>She short-circuited when he swirled two fingers at her entrance. Did she really just tell herself she’d talk to him? She had no idea how to tell him everything that was in her chest at the moment. She felt it everywhere, and he was everywhere, and maybe if she just stayed right there - right where she was - he would eventually understand. She didn’t want to smother him, but she wanted to cover him as best as she could, with her heart and her body and -</p>
<p>“I wanna be on top,” she admitted. If she only got to do this one more time, they were fucking doing it her way. It wasn’t the most optimal position for procreation’s sake, and she had a moment of dread that he might catch onto her, but -</p>
<p>“<em>Shit</em>, get up here,” he practically grunted, hauling her over him with ease.</p>
<p>It was the last time she’d see it - the way his eyes rolled back when she took him in - and that <em>had</em> to be illegal, somehow. She’d miss the stretch of him, the firmness of his grip, the rumble in his chest, as they moved together. She steadied herself with two palms on his pecs and circled her hips.</p>
<p>As much as she wanted to commit his every expression from this perspective to memory, she had to close her eyes as she rode him - the pounding of her heart in her ears was borderline maddening. She moved a bit faster, when she felt him start to lift her, up and down, and she worked out four days a week, but she’d never welcomed a burn in her thighs so willingly.</p>
<p>Gendry was whispering - so quietly, it was almost like he was talking strictly to himself. She could only make out every other word, but the moans of <em>wet</em> and <em>tight</em> and <em>unreal</em> were more than enough. Her hand flew to her clit, causing her to promptly lose both her rhythm and balance.</p>
<p>“I…I can’t,” she panted, still trying to keep up her pace. Her eyes shot open when she heard him shush her.</p>
<p>He reached for her wrist - moved her hand back to his chest, as he replaced it with his own.</p>
<p>“Let me help.”</p>
<p>How she did this before the friction from his calloused thumb, how he seemed to know the exact pattern of movement she needed - it was all beyond her. She bounced harder, more solidly over him, and he encouraged her more with each slam of her hips.</p>
<p>“Fuck, that’s it,” he groaned, “I got you.” She threw her head back, felt herself starting to tense. The hand not focused on her center flew up to pluck her nipple. “Come for me, come on. Yes, yes, yes,” he chanted desperately, and she may have screamed, or she may have just opened her mouth without a sound, but she was coming so hard that she couldn’t hear a thing.</p>
<p>Two snaps from underneath her, and he was following her - a clear reaction to her own release - and she at least had the sense to keep rolling her hips, prolonging his pleasure. Firm palms on her backside leisurely guided her movements. She let his soft moans keep her suspended in the moment for a little bit longer - her senses coming back in unhurried waves.</p>
<p>Gradually, she directed her focus toward Gendry. He looked utterly wrecked - chest heaving, eyes half-lidded, hands rubbing the outsides of her thighs.</p>
<p>“Good morning,” she said with an apprehensive laugh.</p>
<p>“Good morning,” he replied through a lazy smile.</p>
<p>She swung a shaky leg from over his lap, and his hands instinctively rose to steady her, as she moved to lay on her side. She didn’t mean to land facing away from him, but he didn’t seem to mind - wrapping his arm around her from behind, sweeping her hair to the side, resting his lips on the back of her neck.</p>
<p>She knew she needed to get up, eventually. At the moment, that felt impossible.</p>
<p>They basked in cozy silence for a bit, soaked up the sounds of the rest of the world waking up outside her window. Gendry was stroking her stomach with his knuckles - just light enough to give her goosebumps - and she wondered if the gesture was intentional. If he was imagining it round with a baby, one that they’d made - in the heat of the night before, or in the haze of the early dawn.</p>
<p>The thought spurred her onward.</p>
<p>“Gendry?”</p>
<p>“Mm.”</p>
<p>His breath was tickling her shoulder, and she shivered. She closed her eyes and steeled herself.</p>
<p>“I want it to be with you.”</p>
<p>He said nothing in reply, but his hand stopped moving, so she kept going - full speed ahead.</p>
<p>“I don’t…we don’t have to do this again, if it still didn’t work. I’m sorry if…” she sighed. “It just feels wrong now. The way I was gonna do it, before. So, we can figure something else out, we can, but I just…I really want it to be with you.” She tried her best not to shake in his arms. “It can still just be mine, if you don’t want a kid. That’s a lot to ask. I understand that, and it’s...and…Fuck, this sounds so selfish, you know what, just-“</p>
<p>Gendry’s timing wasn’t always ideal, but in that moment, it was. He gently interrupted her rambling with a chaste kiss to her heated skin.</p>
<p>“I’ll make you a mother, Arya,” he said with quiet determination. “I promise.”</p><hr/>
<p>When she woke up with telltale lower back pains a little over two weeks later, she’d be lying if she said she didn’t feel a little defeated. Surely, she thought, the universe would have rewarded their new understanding, their new arrangement - or even their...extra enthusiasm - with a baby. She still wanted this, after all - and Gendry still wanted to help. It wasn’t fair. She deserved this.</p>
<p>(<em>They</em> deserved this.)</p>
<p>The profound sense of loss was missing this time, though - missing, because she knew they’d have another shot. They had yet to talk through just how they’d go about it, but she knew they’d find a way, and that was all that mattered. He promised her, and she was going to be fine.</p>
<p>Just fine.</p><hr/>
<p>“What does the rest of your day look like?”</p>
<p>(In retrospect, maybe it was all too good to be true - but if it <em>had</em> to come crashing down, did it really have to be on a Saturday morning? She loved Saturday mornings. Honestly.)</p>
<p>“I don’t know, I might take Rick to the movies, but I have to stop by the clinic first,” Arya shouted from her closet.</p>
<p>“Do you know what time you’ll be home?” Gendry yelled. He sounded like he was in the kitchen. “I was gonna make baked ziti.”</p>
<p>She found the solid grey t-shirt she’d been looking for and tossed it behind her, onto her unmade bed. “I love baked ziti!”</p>
<p>“I know, goofball,” came his muted chuckle. She smiled to herself.</p>
<p>“What about you?”</p>
<p>“Oil change,” he said, his voice getting closer. “Dentist appointment. And making dinner for us, apparently.” She looked up from her wardrobe when she felt his presence in the doorway behind her.</p>
<p>His arms were crossed against his chest - one shoulder leaning against the wooden frame, one foot crossed in front of the other. He hadn’t changed out of his clothes from their run, and his face still glistened with sweat. She was sure she didn’t look - or smell - any better, but she smirked affectionately and moved to stand in front of him.</p>
<p>“When did you become so boring?” she teased.</p>
<p>He laughed, ran a hand through his slightly damp hair. “You’ve been calling me boring for twenty years. Thought I was just born that way.”</p>
<p>It was easy - this, the two of them. The boring stuff, and the fun stuff, and everything in between. Arya could, quite literally, barely remember her life before Gendry was in it, and she knew there’d been times when she’d taken him for granted. But he challenged her, and she made him laugh, and he was known for his temper, but he’d never yelled at her - not once. They’d seen each other sob, and he was her first call for everything, and - even when he had no reason to, even now - he looked at her like he’d never seen another person before.</p>
<p>Before she could talk herself out of it, she rose onto the tips of her toes - grabbed him by the back of the neck and pressed her lips against his.</p>
<p>He stood frozen.</p>
<p>She sank immediately back down onto the soles of her feet, instinctively bringing her hand up to her mouth and clearing her throat. Her cheeks were twin flames.</p>
<p>“Arya, I-“</p>
<p>“Hey, no, it’s fine,” she said quickly, avoiding eye contact. “I don’t know what…” She did, though. She knew exactly what she’d been thinking. “Don’t worry about it.”</p>
<p>“Are you…I mean, I thought you had another…week, right? I didn’t think-“</p>
<p>Her blood ran cold. “No. I’m not,” she said flatly.</p>
<p>He was right. She wouldn’t be ovulating again for another week - another eight days, to be precise. Which she <em>was</em> - precise and careful about this, about all of this, and she didn’t know how she could be so stupid.</p>
<p>“I have to change. I’m gonna be late,” she said with a tremor, scrambling for the doorknob. Stupid.</p>
<p>“Wait, Arya, can we-“ he tried, putting his weight on both feet and holding out a hand to stop her.</p>
<p>“Seriously, Gendry, don’t feel bad. I’ll let you know about dinner,” she managed. The door creaked on its hinges when she began to move it, and her eyes were still trained on his feet, as he took two silent steps back to let her close it all the way.</p>
<p>Only when she heard his bedroom door shut - slam slightly, if she wasn’t mistaken - did she allow herself to crouch to the floor and cry.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>angst? in <em>my</em> stupid smutfest? it's more likely than you think</p>
<p>tumblr: <a href="https://lightninginabottle0613.tumblr.com/">lightninginabottle0613</a> 😇</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. ours</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>a proclamation...or two</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>(hey! so, slight tw in this chapter, for discussion/fear of infertility. i have never been pregnant or tried to become pregnant or dealt with anything like that, so i have no idea if that's even something that would need a warning, but i figured just to be safe 💙)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Arya did, ultimately, wind up returning for dinner - stopping at the grocery store on her way, to pick up a peace offering in the form of garlic bread.</p>
<p>She hadn’t been entirely forthright with Rickon about what had put her in such a sour mood, but he’d told her to ‘stop being a baby’ - he was the only one that could get away with that and survive - and to go home.</p>
<p>That she and Gendry ‘like, loved each other,’ and that they would work out whatever was getting between them.</p>
<p>He had no idea.</p>
<p>They’d been stiff with one another at first, but they’d loosened up some by the time they went for seconds - both intent on pushing past Arya’s unfortunate misstep. She was thankful he hadn’t asked her to talk about it.</p>
<p>She didn’t think she could handle any more humiliation.</p>
<p>For the next week, they continued to dance around the topic of what would happen once eight days had passed - that felt like a ‘cross the bridge when they got to it’ type of situation. At this point, she was just focused on not wanting to die whenever he entered the room.</p>
<p>(He seemed focused on wearing form-fitting t-shirts and keeping his hair perfectly tousled and continuing to wake up early to start her coffee, so she wasn’t really having much luck with her endeavor for peace.)</p>
<p>Her symposium the following weekend was a blessing - a chance for her to spend a few nights away, without seeming like she was hiding. She didn’t quite know <em>how</em> to hide from someone who’d already seen it all, but she wouldn’t mind giving it a shot.</p>
<p>The downpour from before had cleared into a light drizzle, but she’d still prefer to ride out the storm in her own private shelter.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Gendry drove her to the airport, because of course he did.</p>
<p>They coasted in agreeable silence - the radio just high enough to hear, just low enough to not be annoying. Arya leaned her head against the glass and closed her eyes. She hated being a passenger, always found it impossible to sleep in the car, because she trusted no one’s driving, but this was Gendry.</p>
<p>She drifted off five minutes into the trip.</p>
<p>She woke up slowly when she felt the car roll to a stop, into a parking spot right outside the sliding doors. Her eyes flitted up toward the ceiling in exasperation when he leapt out to get her bags from the trunk.</p>
<p>“Not a word,” he warned her when she rounded the back of the car to relieve him of the luggage.</p>
<p>“Not even ’thanks’?”</p>
<p>“Sure, I’ll take a thanks.”</p>
<p>“Too bad. You’re not getting one.”</p>
<p>He laughed through his nose and scuffed the heel of his shoe across the pavement. She hoisted her backpack onto her shoulders, set the rolling suitcase by her side.</p>
<p>“So, I’ll see you on Monday night,” she offered.</p>
<p>“Yeah, I’ll see you,” he repeated. “Have a safe flight.”</p>
<p>“Not really up to me, but thanks.”</p>
<p>“<em>There’s</em> my thanks,” he said with mock relief.</p>
<p>“Fuck off,” she laughed quietly, rolling her eyes for good measure.  </p>
<p>He was making no move to knock her upper arm - or hug her, like he’d taken to more recently - so she shot him a close-mouthed smile and moved to gather her things.</p>
<p>She made it a few paces toward the terminal when he spoke again.</p>
<p>“Hey, Arya?”</p>
<p>The light breeze caused a flurry of loose tendrils to smack her in the face when she spun around. She shook her head, made an awkward spitting noise in an attempt to get them unstuck from her lips.</p>
<p>When she finally righted herself, Gendry was watching her fondly.</p>
<p>“I love you.”</p>
<p>It was the sickest kind of torture, trying to make her cry before she had to board a plane. He knew airports made her feel gross as it was.</p>
<p>He decidedly <em>didn’t </em>know that the last thing she needed to hear was that he loved her, given how vastly different she now knew their loves for each other really were, but - regardless. He had a lot of nerve.</p>
<p>She blinked rapidly, shaking her head to pretend that the wind was still blowing in her face. She coughed.</p>
<p>“Love you, too,” she said back, because - still - she couldn’t not.</p>
<hr/>
<p>That first night in her hotel room was restless.</p>
<p>What was that thing she’d thought before? That thing about grief over something that had never existed in the first place? She used to grimace at Sansa and her friends for this when they were freshmen in high school - displaying this level of obsession over a <em>boy</em>. She was ashamed of herself.</p>
<p>(When <em>Arya </em>was a freshman in high school, Gendry had been a senior, and he’d gotten suspended for punching a guy in the face that told her she was funny-looking. This memory was not helping her case.)</p>
<p>She fell asleep all three nights with her laptop open next to her - Netflix playing, or music on, or listening to that Ocean Escapes playlist that Bran had turned her on to. Anything so she didn’t need to drift off in silence.</p>
<p>Silence would force her to dwell on the fact that she and Gendry had exchanged only a handful of surface-level texts for her entire trip, but she saw him lounging in the background of Jon’s Instagram story one afternoon, wearing the Kingsguard hoodie she’d gotten him for Christmas last year.</p>
<p>She abstractedly scrolled through the donor directory on her last night away, and she only felt full-body prickles of displeasure. She closed out the tab mere minutes later - rolled onto her side, bundled under the crisp white comforter, and she still never got cold, but she felt a distinct lack of warmth all the same.</p>
<hr/>
<p>“Hey.”</p>
<p>“<em>Mother</em>fuck-“ she shrieked, starting at the sound of his voice in the pitch-black living room.</p>
<p>(Arya’s flight back was delayed by several hours, so she told Gendry not to worry about picking her up from the airport. They argued about it for exactly seventy-two minutes, and she prevailed when she told him she’d take his next bathroom-cleaning week.</p>
<p>It was the most <em>them</em> they’d been in days, and she had a knot in her stomach for the entire Lyft ride home.</p>
<p>The apartment was dark and quiet when she returned, and she was glad for it. All she wanted was to take a shower and sleep for an eternity - or try to, at least. She accomplished her first goal successfully, and she was well on her way to accomplishing the second, when she realized sleep was a lost cause - with her head as cloudy as it was, with Gendry resting, none the wiser and without a care, in the next room.</p>
<p>She tiptoed out of bed, not bothering to fumble for a pair of pants, and cracked her door open to attempt to find a late-night snack. She would have just wasted away in bed, had she known she wouldn’t be alone.)</p>
<p>“Sorry,” Gendry muttered. She heard him adjust his position on the couch - it sounded like he’d been lying down. Like he’d been planning to sleep out there.</p>
<p>“What are you doing awake?” she asked, a bit more coldly than she intended. She finished out the short walk to the refrigerator, opened it to search its contents for something she could heat up.</p>
<p>“Couldn’t sleep,” he said.</p>
<p>Her back was toward him, but she still scoffed. The poor thing - must have been exhausting for him to be killing her slowly. Probably took a lot of effort.</p>
<p>“Me, neither.”</p>
<p>“Nice shirt,” he said with a tinge of amusement.</p>
<p>Her eyes widened, and she cursed silently. Turning to face him, she realized she was illuminated by the light from the fridge - making it no secret that she was wearing his oversized university rowing team t-shirt. It nearly reached her knees.</p>
<p>She folded her arms across her chest, suddenly self-conscious.</p>
<p>“It’s comfortable.”</p>
<p>She could discern the vague outline of him now, and he sat unmoving - bent forward slightly from his seat on the couch, his forearms resting on the tops of his thighs. He said nothing, so she retreated to grab the leftover pizza she’d spotted.</p>
<p>“I, um…” he said quietly. “I missed you.” He tossed it out like he was suggesting a plan for the evening. <em>We could…watch a movie? Or…grab a bite? I…missed you?</em></p>
<p>She felt herself grow warm and exhaled sharply - closing the fridge and cloaking the room in darkness once again.</p>
<p>“I missed you, too,” she said curtly.</p>
<p>“Why does it sound like it physically pains you to say that?”</p>
<p><em>Because it does</em>, she wanted to say<em>.</em> She willed herself to speak more kindly. “I didn’t mean to snap,” she said. “I’m just tired.”</p>
<p>“Tired, but you can’t sleep?” he tested. Great - it was gonna be like <em>this</em>, then.</p>
<p>She grabbed a plate from the cabinet. “Shut up, Gendry.”</p>
<p>“Arya,” he pressed. “Tell me why you can’t sleep.”</p>
<p>She opened the box, selected the biggest slice. “You are infuriating.”</p>
<p>“I bet I can guess why.”</p>
<p>That was it.</p>
<p>She switched on a light and whipped around to face him properly.</p>
<p>“<em>Why?</em>” she demanded. “<em>Why</em> are you doing this? You didn’t kiss me back. You already sent the message, loud and clear. I don’t need to fucking hear it-“</p>
<p>“Wait, what?” he interrupted her, rising to his feet. “What message?”</p>
<p>“That we’re not on the same page!” she yelled, gesturing wildly between them.</p>
<p>She felt crazed - but it was two o’clock in the morning for gods’ sake, and the words were out. There was nothing she could do.</p>
<p>“You were just trying to help. You were being a good friend, and that’s…it’s fine! It’s fine, Gendry! I get it!” She was sweating now - she could climb a mountain with this adrenaline. “It went too far. Or, <em>I</em> went too far. And I just thought…” she trailed off with a sigh.</p>
<p>He was staring at her - violently fixated on her - and he looked horrified. Good.</p>
<p>“It’s just hard to hear you say that you missed me, and that you love me, when you have <em>no</em> idea how <em>deeply</em> those things are true for me. About you,” she finished, her voice low and hoarse.</p>
<p>He watched for a moment longer - almost long enough for her to make a dramatic exit, cold pizza in tow. But he broke the silence, and his tone was unrecognizable.</p>
<p>“Is that really what you think of me?”</p>
<p>She swallowed - her heart beginning to pound again at the quiet anger in his voice.</p>
<p>“Is <em>what</em> what I really think of you?”</p>
<p>“You think,” he started, approaching her slowly, “that I had <em>sex</em> with you. Actual, literal <em>sex</em> with you. Three times. Because I was <em>being a good friend?</em>”</p>
<p>He stopped an arm’s length from where she stood in shock.</p>
<p>“I’m not a fucking idiot, Arya. There would’ve been other ways to go about it, if that’s really all I was trying to do. Are you forgetting whose idea this was?”</p>
<p>All of the blood rushed to her head again. She lifted her chin to fight back.</p>
<p>“I kissed you! And you just <em>stood</em>-“</p>
<p>His hands moved then to grip her shoulders. Despite all of this - the intensity of his words, the storm in his gaze - he held onto her with care. He leaned down to meet her at eye-level.</p>
<p>“Arya,” he cut in. He sounded like he was talking to a child. She wanted to scream. “<em>I love you</em>.”</p>
<p>She reached for his hands to pry them off of her. “Stop <em>saying </em>that.”</p>
<p>He stood up straighter, pulling tightly - frantically - on two fistfuls of his hair.</p>
<p>“I don’t love you like a fucking friend!” She failed to stifle the faint gasp from escaping her lips. His eyes looked ready to burst from his skull.</p>
<p>“I love you like you love someone when you wanna marry them and raise kids with them and-“</p>
<p>Her heart felt like it was speeding up and stopping completely - all at once.</p>
<p>“You wanna marry me?” she breathed.</p>
<p>“What?” he asked sharply. “No. I mean. Fuck. Yes. If you…” He ran a hand through his hair, down his face. “I know you don’t wanna get married. I was just using that as-“</p>
<p>“When did I say I don’t wanna get married?”</p>
<p>He was getting exasperated. “I don’t know.”</p>
<p>“I mean, I don’t <em>not</em>-“</p>
<p>“We’ll fucking table it! This isn’t about that!”</p>
<p>Seeming to realize, only then, that they were shouting - full-on, red-faced shouting, in an apartment with walls that were definitely <em>not</em> soundproof, to answer the question that started it all - he grabbed her hand and guided them toward the couch.</p>
<p>She was helpless to resist - in that moment, she figured she’d follow him anywhere, even if he led them out the front door and into the damn moon.</p>
<p>“Look,” he said when they were seated - softer, still definitive, “I don’t know what I expected when I started this whole...thing. I don’t. I thought you were gonna tell me to piss off, to be honest. But you didn’t.”</p>
<p>His voice became gentler with each word. He turned her hand over in his, started to run his thumb absentmindedly against her palm - like it had calming properties she wasn’t aware of.</p>
<p>“And then it didn’t work. And…you were so sad. And all I fucking wanted was to try again, but you said just once.” She winced, looked into her lap. “So, I was sad, too. But I wasn’t gonna push my luck, because it was bigger than that. It was…not about<em> that</em>. For you.”</p>
<p>Her head lifted abruptly. “It-“</p>
<p>“Please,” he implored, squeezing her hand. His voice was rough. She nodded.</p>
<p>“But then you wanted to try again. And…again.” The corners of his mouth curled slightly. “And then you…you told me you wanted it to be with me. And then you kissed me.” She laughed dejectedly. He raised her hand to his lips, speaking more softly than ever. “And I should’ve just grabbed you and kissed you like I wanted to, but I had to open my stupid mouth.” She smiled at that - teary-eyed and disbelieving. “And then you were shutting me out before I could even begin to explain.”</p>
<p>She watched his strokes to her skin, his giant hands completely engulfing hers, and thought that was sort of exactly how she felt - utterly surrounded by him. She looked up, and there was that thing - that thing that used to unnerve her, swirling behind his eyes, now nameable and steadfast. Unafraid.</p>
<p>“How long?” she asked simply.</p>
<p>“Way too long,” he answered immediately.</p>
<p>“Why did you wait until I wanted to have a baby to tell me?”</p>
<p>“I wasn’t waiting for anything. I didn’t think…” he started. “I thought there was no way you’d ever love me like that, so I was just gonna live with it.”</p>
<p>Arya’s eyes filled with tears at the thought of how much longer they could have both suffered in silence. She was so glad she’d left her room.</p>
<p>“But when you told me you wanted a baby, I couldn’t stop picturing it as ours,” he said a bit sadly, like he was right back in that moment, months ago. “So, I had to try something.”</p>
<p>A lone tear escaped through her lashes faster than she could stop it, and Gendry lifted a hand to wipe the wet spot from her cheek. Normally, she’d bat his finger away - they’d had unprotected, mind-blowing sex <em>three</em> times, and this was somehow the most intimate thing they’d ever done.</p>
<p>There he was again, looking sweet and beautiful and captivating. Soft, too - she added that to the list. She turned over her secret descriptors in her head and thought maybe he wouldn’t mind so much if she told him, after all.</p>
<p>“I almost did tell you to piss off,” she said, blinking to reorient herself.</p>
<p>His smile nearly tore his face in half.</p>
<p>“Why didn’t you?”</p>
<p>She took a deep breath.</p>
<p>“I had it all figured out and ready to go, you know,” she started. “I knew exactly how I was gonna tell people and pay for it and take care of it and everything. But I was only nervous about telling one person, and that was you.”</p>
<p>Gendry’s lips parted - ever so slightly, in a mesmerized exhale. It made her insides feel like lava.</p>
<p>“And I didn’t know why. And I was prepared to not worry about it, but then you…offered what you did.” He laughed - closed his eyes and shook his head. “And I couldn’t let it go.”</p>
<p>Arya was suddenly aware that his hand was still cupping her face. She leaned into his touch - enough to cover half of her face.</p>
<p>“I think...that I’ve probably felt it since before I even knew what it was,” she said shyly. “But that night, I couldn’t ignore it anymore.”</p>
<p>She surveyed him then - quietly appreciated the blue of his eyes and the cut of his jaw - and shivered.</p>
<p>“So…one part of me just wanted to know what it would be like. With you,” she said with feigned detachment. He snorted - briefly removed his hand to playfully tug on her ear. “But all of me just…loves you, too,” she finished.</p>
<p>Gendry used his leverage on her face to usher her in, arresting her lips in a fierce kiss. They stayed still for a suspended moment - breaths held, mouths pressed firmly together - until she lifted her own hands from where they’d been anxiously clutching the couch cushions. One rested atop his, the other grasped his collar with the same intensity.</p>
<p>She had more she needed to say, but she’d never felt so dizzy from a kiss before - she thought that was just in the songs. She pulled away and waited for her senses to return, like a drizzle, but the good kind - the best kind - before she continued.</p>
<p>“Um,” she swallowed, catching the last of her lost breath. “I still...I really want a baby, but we don’t…I don’t want it to just be mine. I want it to be ours. We can wait, but I-“</p>
<p>“I want that, too,” he said.</p>
<p>She closed her eyes and hung her head. “You really wanna be a parent? Already?”</p>
<p>“Did you listen to a single word I just said?”</p>
<p>Arya raised her head, lifted her hand to rest on the back of Gendry’s neck. She ran her fingers through the light dusting of hair.</p>
<p>“Are you sure?” she asked, but she already knew - he was sure, and she was sure, and they were always gonna be a sure thing, weren’t they?</p>
<p>“I love you,” he whispered, leaning in to pepper her cheek with soft kisses - a cool mist. He moved to stroke up the tops of her bare thighs under her - <em>his</em> - shirt. “And I want you.” He slid up, gliding past her center, and squeezed when he reached the dip in her waist. “I’m sure.”</p>
<p>Her head nearly rolled when he lifted her to straddle him, and she purposely dragged her body down his torso - as slowly as she could - when she lowered into his lap.</p>
<p>“Your room or mine, then?” she asked the skin behind his ear.</p>
<hr/>
<p>His head was between her legs before she could adjust to the shadows of the room - his room. His eyes had darkened far too deliciously to pass up when she’d dragged him by the waistband toward the hallway - stopping to press him against the wall outside his door.</p>
<p>She’d spend until the sunrise trying to keep that look on his face, if he’d let her.</p>
<p>He was kneeling at the foot of his mattress, and her legs were tossed over his shoulders, and she’d barely had time to even <em>suggest</em> removing her shirt or her panties - only had time to cry out when he bunched the hem at her waist and slid the soaked cotton to the side.</p>
<p>There was an entire litany of things that Arya wanted to do with him now - now that they’d torn down their walls. Things that they definitely...<em>couldn’t</em> have done while they were still pretending to have only one end goal.</p>
<p>She was pleased to see that Gendry was on the same page.</p>
<p>The noises he made, as he teased her slit with his tongue, nearly drowned out the sound of how wet she really was. A sigh of relief escaped her when his fingers finally danced to her waistband - yanking the garment from her hips in one fluid motion.</p>
<p>“Fingers…in…<em>ugh</em>, yes,” she panted, when he dove back in without missing a beat. Her ankles locked behind his head, hips pulsed faintly against him, hands tangled in his hair.</p>
<p>“Arya,” he rasped, “I could <em>live</em> down here.” He traded his tongue for a second finger in her cunt, breathed heavily between wet kisses to her inner thighs. “You’re everything.”</p>
<p>She believed him - in that moment, she really did believe that she was everything. Because she had him, and <em>he</em> was everything, and she was having a hard time figuring out where exactly she ended and he began.</p>
<p>“I’m…” she gasped. “Please, please, don’t stop, I’m-“ was all she could manage, before the words died on her tongue and his lips closed around her clit, and she was sinking and flying all at once. Dark and bright, deafening and silent. Still somehow clear, though - as clear as anything she’d ever felt.</p>
<p>At some point, she registered Gendry wiping his jaw against her leg and rising to strip. Her eyes managed to flutter open, just as his bottoms hit the floor.</p>
<p>“Back,” he commanded with a single finger toward his headboard - his other hand gripping the base of his cock. “Off.” Same finger, toward her shirt.</p>
<p>The timbre of his voice alone compelled her to move - to toss her shirt to the side and propel herself backward, as he crawled to cover her. Arya remembered that morning, then - the morning she thought she’d never have this again - and she summoned a bit more muscle. She wrapped her legs around him, tried to flip him onto his back.</p>
<p>She’d always known Gendry to be strong - the most solid man she knew, really - but her breath still caught in her throat when he pinned her down by the wrists.</p>
<p>“Later,” he grunted, bending down to suck at her pulse. “My way, first.”</p>
<p>The air left her lungs, and he must have known she wouldn’t fight back, because he sat up to tower over her. He ran two scalding hands up to cover her breasts and back down to skim her sides, eyes fixed solely on her center.</p>
<p>“You’re so fucking gorgeous,” he whispered, nudging her hips further open. His arms framed her face when he hovered leaned back down. “Wider,” he muttered.</p>
<p>She didn’t even bother trying to suppress her whine - needy and drunk. She laughed in spite of herself.</p>
<p>“Who are you, and what have you done with Gendry?” she panted, cupping his face between her hands.</p>
<p>It was still dark, but she was close enough to trace the line between his brows, and a new layer of passion settled over his dominance - a softness that nearly broke her open. He dropped his forehead down to rest against hers.</p>
<p>“Every time you say my name, I fall in love with you a little more,” he said. He pressed a sloppy kiss to the corner of her eye. “Do you know how many times you’ve said my name since I first knew that I loved you?”</p>
<p>They were the only two people awake in the whole world, she thought, as she surged toward his lips. Two-thirty in the morning, cold pizza on the counter, and he tasted like her, and she had more love for him than she knew what to do with - she just knew that she wanted him to keep falling.</p>
<p>“Gendry,” she said against his mouth with a smile. He sucked in a breath, lifted her knees to bend against her chest.</p>
<p>“Gendry,” she breathed - head tossed back, eyes shut, delirious - when she felt the tip of him slip through her folds.</p>
<p>“<em>Gendry</em>,” she moaned, when he slid completely into her - hot and full and hers.</p>
<p>He seemed to give no thought to drawing this out - their need for each other overpowering any desire to delay. He pumped into her relentlessly, one arm holding her flush against his body, and she clung to him - each thrust making her gasp, right into his ear. The hand not cradling her against him snaked down to rub where they were joined, and she felt every part of her already beginning to lurch forward.</p>
<p>Firmer, quicker, more desperately, his fingers moved, when she started to squeeze around his cock again, and he was <em>right </em>there - she recognized the slackening of his jaw, the way he slowed. But his eyes bore into hers, silently begging her to let go just one more time, so she bit her lip and nodded.</p>
<p>Arya felt like she was being split in two. She said that out loud, and Gendry’s strangled cry into the crook of her neck triggered a spontaneous laugh from her chest, because she <em>did</em> mean it literally, but she also felt, like - like this was, undoubtedly, what it meant for a person’s heart to beat in two bodies at once.</p>
<p>He groaned something unintelligible into her shoulder when she shouted his name again - quivering beneath him, sparks behind her eyes. He paused his movements, waited for her to come down, lifted his hand to brush her hair from her face. She leaned into his palm, eyes still blissfully closed, and turned to kiss the inside of his wrist.</p>
<p>“Fuck <em>me</em>,” she sighed - more of an expletive than a directive, but also definitely a directive all the same. A directive she could certainly get used to giving, if it always resulted in such a carnal snap of his hips - such a hunger in his eyes when he looked down to watch himself do exactly as she commanded.</p>
<p>Still sated, Arya was content to bask in his desire - lazily arching her back, rolling her nipples between the pads of her fingers, softly humming to encourage him. His momentum faltered, and his mouth went slack again.</p>
<p>“Tell me where to come,” he said hoarsely, his arms looping under her knees, still bent against her torso. The instruction shot directly through her - straight down the middle.</p>
<p>“Oh, my gods, keep-”</p>
<p>“Tell me,” he insisted, his voice searing. “Where do you want it, Arya?”</p>
<p>“Come in…<em>fuck</em>, I love you,” she managed through whimpers. “Come inside me, I wanna feel it.”</p>
<p>The words had hardly left her lips before he was roaring through his release, and she couldn’t help but whisper his name - over and over, his perfect face alight with rapture. She was almost certain he couldn’t hear her, but she was definitely certain she didn’t care, because this time, it was for her.</p>
<p>For realizing that each time she said his name, she fell more in love with him, too.</p>
<p>She lightly combed her fingers through his hair until his head cleared, and she feigned surliness when he moved to roll off of her - dragging his full weight securely on top of her.</p>
<p>Gendry laughed uninhibitedly into the space beside her head. She couldn’t help but join him. His heart hammered against her - or was that hers hammering against him? - and she was finally warm again.</p>
<p>“Think it worked?” he asked, brushing his lips against her skin with every word.</p>
<p>She didn’t hesitate this time - she’d meant it then, and she meant it now. The raven-haired little girl in her mind’s eye had brothers, and sisters, and Gendry as her father.</p>
<p>And right then, Arya just had Gendry.</p>
<p>“I hope so,” she said sleepily.</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <em>3:00, 2:59, 2:58.</em>
  
</p>
<p>She hadn’t actually done this the last two times - had just settled, instead, for waiting until her period came.</p>
<p>Or didn’t come.</p>
<p>Or whatever.</p>
<p>This made it feel more official, though - like she was seeking the answer <em>out</em>. Like somehow this...made her chances more likely? That made no sense.</p>
<p>She was pacing. She needed to sit.</p>
<p>
  <em>2:30, 2:29, 2:28.</em>
</p>
<p>Okay. She definitely was, right? They’d tried a lot in the past two weeks - like, a lot.</p>
<p>Of course, there’d been a lot of...other stuff. Stuff that definitely couldn’t have contributed to whatever this outcome was. (Like, if it <em>had</em>, that’d be pretty impressive.)</p>
<p>But the thing that mattered - yeah. No shortage of that.</p>
<p>She was still pacing.</p>
<p>
  <em>2:00, 1:59, 1:58.</em>
</p>
<p>Peeing on a stick had been pretty gross. Were there people that did it with<em>out</em> peeing on their hand?</p>
<p>Sansa had probably done it right. Should she call Sansa? She laughed at the thought that she still hadn’t told anyone about this.</p>
<p>Her sister would certainly side-eye her, but she’d at least be able to talk her ear off for the next two minutes.</p>
<p>
  <em>1:30, 1:29, 1:28.</em>
</p>
<p>Seriously, when the fuck did time start moving so slowly? <em>Sit</em>, Arya. Sit. For the love of the gods.</p>
<p>
  <em>1:00, 0:59, 0:58.</em>
</p>
<p>Was it too soon to check, though? Not to check the test. To check in general. To take the test in the first place. All of the websites said, ‘two to three weeks after you think you might have conceived.’</p>
<p>‘Two to three weeks after an unprotected sexual encounter.’ Why did so many sites call them ‘encounters?’ Gendry would find that funny, probably.</p>
<p>She sighed. She loved Gendry so much.</p>
<p>
  <em>0:30, 0:29, 0:28.</em>
</p>
<p>“Arya?” she heard from the entryway to the apartment. “You home?”</p>
<p>Her head snapped up. He wasn’t due back for another hour, at least.</p>
<p>She’d finally taken a seat - on the closed toilet - and now she was worried her legs would be too shaky to stand again. She gulped - there was hardly anything she could do about all of this now, was there?</p>
<p>“In here!” she called back.</p>
<p>
  <em>0:03, 0:02, 0:01.</em>
</p>
<p>The timer on her phone went off - shrill and unforgiving - and she cracked open the bathroom door. The sounds of Gendry milling around in the kitchen floated down the hallway, and Arya couldn’t decide if she wanted him in there with her or not.</p>
<p>The prospect of running out to the living room - positive test in hand - clobbered any need for emotional support. She turned back toward the sink counter, and <em>oh well, </em>she heard him approaching regardless, so she finally peeked.</p>
<p>“What are we up to in here?” came Gendry’s voice from behind her.</p>
<p>She had tears brimming in her eyes when she glanced up to greet him - not the kind she’d been hoping for.</p>
<p>“What’s-“ he started - stopping himself when he saw what she’d been studying.</p>
<p>“No, it’s...” she said - blinking back the moisture, moving in for a hug. “It’s way too soon anyway, probably, but I just thought-“</p>
<p>She trailed off when Gendry refused to let her out of his embrace - just held her tighter and kissed her crown.</p>
<p>“It’s okay,” he said into her hair. “I promised, remember?”</p>
<p>The reminder was a comfort - a small one, but still a comfort.</p>
<p>Just enough to hold back - for now - the unfettered fear she was starting to feel that his promise might not be possible.</p>
<hr/>
<p>“Jon’s gonna kill me.”</p>
<p>(It wasn’t exactly the major life development that Arya had anticipated sharing at her parents’ next dinner party, but she never did mind a plot twist.</p>
<p>They didn’t have a strategy in place, exactly - like her original plan, she decided casually slipping it in was the way to go. Calling Gendry ‘love’ to get him to pass the rolls, stroking his forearm while he attempted small talk with her father.</p>
<p>It was bound to go over much less scandalously than the news she’d planned to have, but she still felt nervous to make it public. Sort of sick - no, nauseous, actually. And a little dizzy. She didn’t think she was nervous enough to warrant <em>physical</em> illness, but - oh well.</p>
<p>She winced to herself and swallowed down the anxiety as best as she could - squeezed Gendry’s hand, while they waited on the mansion’s front steps.)</p>
<p>“I don’t know,” she mused. “My money’s on Rickon. He can be pretty scrappy.”</p>
<p>“No,” Gendry said in a daze, “I’m pretty sure Jon’s gonna kill me.”</p>
<p>She glanced up at him then - he was pale as a ghost. At least she wasn’t the only one feeling out of sorts.</p>
<p>“Why?”</p>
<p>“I had lunch with him a couple weeks ago, and he told me I looked upset. So, I told him I...hooked up with someone. But that I didn’t think she liked me that way. And then he...”</p>
<p>Arya quirked her brow.</p>
<p>“He high-fived me for getting laid,” he said with a sigh.</p>
<p>“Oh, Gendry,” she said sympathetically. She rubbed his back when he hung his head. “I’ll sit between you.”</p>
<hr/>
<p>The best thing about Stark family events was also the worst thing, in Arya’s present mind - absolute, unbridled chaos.</p>
<p>Nieces and nephews tearing through the kitchen, dogs barking at various decibels from the upstairs chambers, always an honest attempt at calming music filtering through the speaker system. Her parents - her noble, selfless parents - and their open-door policy, always resulting in at least ten people Arya had never met before.</p>
<p>Always Gendry, too. For as long as she could remember. Gendry as a scruffy teen, with his permanent scowl. Gendry as a slightly bearish adult - who hated most people, and became almost physically winded if he had to say more than five sentences in an hour, and had <em>several</em> choice words when he was required to wear a tie.</p>
<p>All of that disdain for socialization, and never a single direct complaint, though. Never a question of whether he’d show up and wear the tie - but he was drawing the line at suitcoat, alright? - and be there.</p>
<p>Really, he’d been telling her he loved her all along.</p>
<p>So, typically, the chaos was only the best thing - not the worst, by any stretch - because Arya had everyone she needed in one loud, beautiful place. Today, though - it was doing nothing to counteract how...wobbly she felt from the overstimulation.</p>
<p>She angled toward Gendry’s ear, midway through dinner, as he moved to reach for his water.</p>
<p>“Can you move the broccoli? Like...pass it down, somewhere else?” she whispered. “The smell is making me lightheaded.”</p>
<p>He snorted quietly, immediately reached for the porcelain dish.</p>
<p>“Yeah, sure.”</p>
<p>Swiftly, she pressed a steady hand to his thigh.</p>
<p>“Be subtle,” she said. “I don’t wanna offend my mother.”</p>
<p>Whether he’d decided for both of them that this would be the moment of truth - or whether he’d simply forgotten about the table full of her relatives - she wasn’t sure. She was only giddy with affection at the feel of his lips on her cheek.</p>
<p>Until someone - Bran, it sounded like - cleared their throat. Then, she simply rolled her eyes and grabbed Gendry’s face, directing his already parted lips to hers.</p>
<p>He groaned in protest into the kiss, but it quickly turned into a resigned laugh, and soon he had fully committed - cupping her face with one hand, tickling her side with the other. The tingle up her spine was enough to drown out the uproar that ensued - a joyous one, mostly, but an uproar all the same.</p>
<p>That was their big reveal, then - out in the open, unveiled. The easiest thing she’d ever done - the easiest thing she’d ever do.</p>
<p>They broke apart slowly to field the profusion of questions and exclamations -</p>
<p>(“Did...did I high-<em>five</em> you for fucking my little sister?”</p>
<p>“Sorry, mate.”)</p>
<p>- but only one rang out louder than the rest.</p>
<p>“Oh, my gods, it’s about <em>time</em>!” Sansa shouted excitedly, from the other end of the table. Her son had clamored into her lap - clearly overcome by the commotion - and she brushed a loose curl from his face.</p>
<p>“Ugh,” she continued with a wave of her hand - as if she was too affected, too satisfied with this news to even form words. “Your kids are gonna be stunning.”</p>
<p>She couldn’t - she didn’t mean it like that. Or, well, she did, but - it wasn’t her fault. She didn’t know. It was just something you<em> said</em> to people - like asking them when they were getting married or who wore the pants, and it was all rather presumptuous and invasive, but still. It was a good-natured sort of sentiment.</p>
<p>The words pounded in Arya’s head like a drum, though - cut straight through the noise and made her ears buzz. She felt warm, and it was far from the good kind, from the kind she felt when she was wrapped in Gendry’s arms, and - Gendry.</p>
<p>He was tuning into her distress and placing a feather-light hand on her back, but it was jerked away by the sudden slide of her chair - away from the table, far enough for her to slip hastily out of the dining room.</p>
<hr/>
<p>The fresh air was certainly helping with the queasiness, but the sound of Gendry’s hurried footsteps was as soul-soothing as it got.</p>
<p>A soft gust of wind hit Arya’s face, and only then did she register the tears staining her cheeks. She sniffled and tilted her head back to ward off the rest.</p>
<p>Gods, why was she <em>such </em>a mess today?</p>
<p>“Hey,” he exhaled when he caught up with her. “What’s wrong? What happened back there?”</p>
<p>She sniffled again, wiped her nose with the back of her hand.</p>
<p>“Nothing, I just-“</p>
<p>“No, stop that,” he cut in, searching her eyes for an explanation. “Who upset you?”</p>
<p>Arya sighed. She felt ridiculous, acting so put out over something so -</p>
<p>“It’s really nothing. She didn’t mean it.”</p>
<p>“Your mum?”</p>
<p>She shook her head. “Sansa. She just...she-“</p>
<p>“Yeah, no, I heard what she said,” Gendry said, confused - like he was weighing each word carefully. Like he had more to say but didn’t want to send her into more of a tailspin. </p>
<p>“I...happen to agree with her,” he tried with a smile. “Isn’t that whole idea sort of how we got here?”</p>
<p>Sweet, beautiful, captivating, soft - and all she could do was cry harder. Gendry cursed under his breath and wasted no time gathering her in his arms.</p>
<p>Her admission was muffled against the expanse of his chest.</p>
<p>“What was that?” he asked, sweeping her hair behind her ear.</p>
<p>It came out again on a choked sob.</p>
<p>“What if I can’t get pregnant?”</p>
<p>Devastating realization dawned across his features - like the possibility hadn’t even crossed his mind.</p>
<p>“Is <em>that</em> what you’re afraid of?”</p>
<p>“Well, yeah!” she cried, tightening her upper lip at her own tone. Two rough thumbs rose to dry the apples of her cheeks. “I just...I don’t know. I didn’t expect it to take so long.”</p>
<p>The thumbs slid to the corners of her eyes, straight to the source of the pressure in her temples. He rubbed gently along her hairline.</p>
<p>“Look at me,” he said - awaiting her apprehensive gaze with one of assurance. “We’ll keep trying.”</p>
<p>She snorted through her tears. He blinked at her reaction for a beat - closing his eyes and letting out a similar noise when the insinuation sunk in.</p>
<p>“That’s not what I...well, yeah. I guess that’s exactly what I meant,” he laughed, breathing a sigh of relief when he saw her hysterics begin to subside.</p>
<p>“But not like <em>that</em>,” he said. “I just mean...we’ll keep trying, and we’ll see doctors, and we’ll figure it out. But, Arya.”</p>
<p>His eyes pierced hers - blazing and earnest.</p>
<p>“What?” she prompted - her voice still a bit shaky.</p>
<p>“You are meant to be a mother,” he said, with every ounce of resolution he seemed to have. “However it happens. That’s a guarantee.”</p>
<p>She already felt the waterworks returning, from his tenderness alone, but she could only laugh at the ardency in his next words.</p>
<p>“And I can’t wait to be a father, so I can watch you outshine me every single day.”</p>
<p>“Don’t say that,” she replied, and it was a mixture of laughing and crying, honestly. But she was swatting his chest, and he was giggling along with her, and thank <em>gods</em>, it was back - the good warmth was back.</p>
<p>And with it came a new ocean of tears.</p>
<p>“I don’t know why I’m crying so much,” she said tiredly.</p>
<p>“Do you wanna go home?” he asked, without hesitation.</p>
<p>To their space and their couch and their freezer full of ice cream - yes, she absolutely did. But, <em>home</em>? She closed her hands around his forearms, gripped tightly to steady herself.</p>
<p>Didn’t he know?</p>
<p>She breathed in deep, breathed out slow - let the man before her and the summer air relax her - and nodded.</p>
<p>“Yes, please.”</p>
<hr/>
<p>Okay, but they really did have the best couch.</p>
<p>They set up camp as soon as they returned home - a movie they’d seen hundreds of times rolling quietly on the television, Arya’s back pressed snugly against Gendry’s front. Between his legs and among the cushions, she felt like she was being swallowed whole - and it was the perfect medicine.</p>
<p>She’d already warned him that she’d be asleep in ten minutes flat, but he didn’t seem to mind - seemed entirely content with caressing her sides, and kissing her hair, and holding her through this funk she was in.</p>
<p>One eye cracked curiously open when she felt his hands run up her torso to lightly palm her breasts. They felt heavier than usual - a bit sore, honestly - but the casual gesture made her heart flutter all the same.</p>
<p>“I’m obsessed with these,” Gendry mumbled, laden with just enough craving to make her shudder. “It might be a problem.”</p>
<p>“Really?” she quipped. “I always pegged you as an ass man.”</p>
<p>His chest jolted with a quiet snicker.</p>
<p>“Don’t say ‘pegged’ and ‘ass’ in the same sentence, you nutjob.”</p>
<p>“We’ll table it,” she said, with a smirk she knew he couldn’t see. His pinch to her side indicated that he heard it loud and clear, though.</p>
<p>“I’m an Arya man, anyway,” he said through controlled laughter - laughter that became significantly less controlled when she exclaimed in mock revulsion and elbowed his rib.</p>
<p>It was just as easy as it always had been, and maybe that was enough. Maybe they needed more time to wait and try and grow together, just the two of them. She still wanted to be a mother, more than anything, but wasn’t her current situation - curled up tight in Gendry’s arms - the best reminder that all good things take time?</p>
<p>Her best friend was behind her - all soft-spoken and sturdy, telling her to get some sleep - and the rest of her life was in front of her.</p>
<p>For the first time, she had no doubts that everything else would fall into place.</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <em>-eight months later-</em>
  
</p>
<p>She could do this by herself - really, she could. It was just turning out to be a bit more complicated than she’d expected.</p>
<p>She’d built almost the entirety of their living room furniture when they first moved into the apartment almost three years ago - only needed to take apart <em>one</em> item and start over from the beginning.</p>
<p>But had any of those pieces <em>not</em> served them well for that entire time? No. They were all pristine.</p>
<p>This monstrosity had a lot of moving parts, she had to admit. And it was rather frustrating that they couldn’t just <em>write</em> the instructions with actual words. She could feel a headache setting in from having to intensely study each monochromatic picture, just to make sure that the pre-drilled holes lined up properly.</p>
<p>Intensely, because there would be <em>no</em> repeats of the Side Table Fiasco of 2017 - not on her watch. Not today.</p>
<p>She was used to all of that, though, and Arya had always been known for her attention to detail, so none of that had much of anything to do with her current...predicament.</p>
<p>She heard the front door open and shut from her position on the bedroom floor, heard the sounds of Gendry shrugging off his coat and rustling plastic bags.</p>
<p>Arya braced herself.</p>
<p>“They were all out of the strawberry,” he called from the foyer, his voice getting louder with each heavy step. “So, I just got double of the mint chip, I hope that’s - Arya!”</p>
<p>She met his rattled stare head-on, blinked at him innocently.</p>
<p>“What?”</p>
<p>“What did we talk about?”</p>
<p>“I’m sitting on the floor!” she fought back, gesturing around her to drive home her obvious statement. “I’m barely moving!”</p>
<p>“You need to be resting,” he said sharply, his jaw set. “You’re gonna hurt yourself.”</p>
<p>She rolled her eyes. “Like hells I am.”</p>
<p>“Can you even see over that thing?”</p>
<p>As if on cue, a nimble foot to her ribcage made her hand fly up to cover her stomach. It hadn’t hurt - it never did - but it also never failed to catch her off guard.</p>
<p>“She heard that.”</p>
<p>He was still annoyed at her - she could tell - but he cracked the tiniest semblance of a smile at the mention of their ‘she.’</p>
<p>“She’s telling you to lay on the fucking couch and <em>rest</em>, just like the doctor told you,” he said, making his way over the threshold and into the room.</p>
<p>“Gendry, I got this. It’s fine.”</p>
<p>He considered her for a few seconds - like she was the most vexing creature in the whole world. His scowl was as prominent as ever, but she knew him, she knew him so well - she could see it softening between his brows.</p>
<p>She wanted to pinch his damn cheeks.</p>
<p>“Let me-“</p>
<p>“No!” Forget it. She couldn’t believe him. “Will you quit? I said I was-“</p>
<p>“<em>Love</em>,” he interrupted. “Let me <em>help</em>.”</p>
<p>He was always branded as the stubborn one of the pair, and perhaps that’d been unfair - she was truly his only worthy opponent. Arya harkened back to a musing she’d had months ago - something about the best parts of him, and the best parts of her, all wrapped up in one tiny angel.</p>
<p>A second abrupt kick to her side reminded her that another opponent was on her way, though.</p>
<p>And they were both in for it.</p>
<p>“Oh,” she said, “of course.” She shuffled a few inches to the side, as gracefully as she could - ignoring Gendry’s exasperated sigh.</p>
<p>She patted the space next to her, smiled as he shook his head in surrender.</p>
<p>“C’mere.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>bonus headcanons for this lil universe, to which i am now stupidly attached:</p>
<p>a/g have 3 biological daughters (including the one referenced in the flash-forward) and adopt 2 orphan boys from lys. gendry teaches all five of them how to ride a bike (and makes sure none of them get hurt, ever, obviously), but arya has a strict rule of no motorcycles until they're 18. they're only really worried about aella breaking that rule, but fair is fair. lommy designs all five nurseries, but a/g insist on building all of the furniture/setting everything up themselves. all five like it best when they get to sleep over at their uncle robb and uncle theon's house on their parents' date nights, but that's because they let them stay up late. barra has a childhood education degree, so a/g trust her the most.</p>
<p>their house is always loud, but they all tell each other they love each other every single day. 💙</p>
<p>tumblr: <a href="https://lightninginabottle0613.tumblr.com/">lightninginabottle0613</a> 😇</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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